The federal government mailed an $11,000 check to a Homestead man two days before sending him a form asking him to verify his damage claim, according to testimony Thursday at the man's fraud trial.

A backlog created when four hurricanes struck Florida in five weeks caused some paperwork to be mailed out of sequence, Carol Olsen, a program specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, explained to jurors in federal court in Miami.

Olsen testified that FEMA cut defendant Daniel Bellegarde a check for $11,198.90 on Oct. 12, six days after he applied for FEMA assistance over the phone. He claimed his furniture was damaged during Hurricane Frances.

According to FEMA's records, an inspector visited the house Bellegarde, 53, shares with his wife and six children on Oct. 10. The inspector decided that furniture in the living room and some of the bedrooms should be replaced and punched the items into a computer program.

The payment was "auto-determined" by the computer, based on the fair market value for the furnishings, Olsen said. The process is intended to get money to victims as quickly as possible. "They have just been in a disaster. Their lives have been turned upside down," she said.

On Oct. 14, two days after mailing his check, FEMA sent Bellegarde a form to sign vouching that the inspector's report was accurate. Olsen acknowledged under defense questioning that FEMA's paperwork was written in Spanish and English. Bellegarde speaks Creole and has been assisted in court by an interpreter during a trial that began this week.

Bellegarde's grasp of English is one of several key issues under dispute in the case. Charged with wire fraud and filing a false claim, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors Susan Osborne and Jeffrey Cox contend that Bellegarde filed a false damage claim after Hurricane Frances brushed by Miami-Dade County over the Labor Day weekend.

But Bellegarde's lawyers insist his furniture was damaged by water that poured into the substandard structure Bellegarde rented with a subsidy from the federal government.

James DePalma, an agent with the Department of Homeland Security's office of inspector general, testified that Bellegarde seemed to understand English during a January interview. He recalled that he spoke slowly with Bellegarde, often repeating his questions. DePalma began investigating some FEMA payments after the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported in October that more than $31 million had been handed out to nearly 13,000 Miami-Dade residents even though the county was spared hurricane conditions. The controversy prompted a U.S. Senate committee investigation and proposed federal legislation to change the way the government awards disaster assistance.

Fourteen people were indicted in March and charged with FEMA fraud; 10 pleaded guilty and were sentenced to probation and ordered to return the money.

DePalma testified that he began looking at people who received checks for more than $10,000. He said he became suspicious of Bellegarde's claim that water tainted with raw sewage had flooded the house when he saw no stains on the walls or other evidence to back it up. Bellegarde's former landlord, Carlos Pla, said he never received any complaints of sewage backups or storm damage from Bellegarde. A leaky bathtub and a broken air conditioner were his only complaints, Pla said.

Pla added that he sold the house about a week after the hurricane and saw no water damage during a walk-through. Testimony continues today.

Ann W. O'Neill can be reached at awoneill@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4531.